During the last ten years, many tools for recognition of competences of volunteers have been developed and tested, on national as well as on EU-level. Some of these tools are spread widely, some are only used in one country or in one organization.Not many volunteer organizations have implemented ‘’recognition’’ in the policy of the organization. Therefore, there is a risk that only offering a recognition tool to volunteers has limited result.The aim of the project was to support organizations in developing a recognition policy and strategy, so ‘’recognition’’ is not limited to the availability of tools, but becomes part of the organizations policy in recruiting and supporting volunteers.Special attention was payed to volunteering by students at universities, and how this volunteering can be linked tot heir scientific study / development. This was mainly done during the evaluations of the pilot training (face-to-face on the last day of the training, and online some time after the training), and during the multiplier meetings that took place in Belgium, Slovakia, and Netherlands in the last half yaer of the project.To reach this aim, we developed and tested a training course. This training aims to support organizations in developing a recognition policy. The training consists of these modules:Module A: Validation on the level of the organizationModule B: Competence managementModule C: Volunteer's portfolioModule D: European and volunteering policy.The training has been developed and tested in cooperation with different volunteer organizations. The training design is flexible, so form and content can be adapted to the needs of the organization. The target group are policy makers / board members / staff members of volunteer organizations. More details of the training can be found under 5.3, Intellectual Outputs. The training scheme can be found in the annexes.For volunteering organizations that want to offer the training corse to their members, we have developed a trainers manual. More details of the manual can be found under 5.3, Intellectual Outputs. The manual can be found in the annexes.For the main target group of the project, the member organizations of the European Alliance for Volunteering, we developed dissemination support, consisting of interviews, a dissemination action plan, and a promotion leaflet. More information can be found under 5.3, Intellectual Outputs. Examples of the promotion leaflet and the dissemination action plan can be found in the annexes.

"More and more people and organisations are becoming aware of the educational value of volunteering, and of validation opportunities for the voluntary sector. However, ther use and impact is largely unknown. Furthermore the risk of reinventing the wheel by setting up new projects is evident, and on the other hand, there are ‘’missing links’’e.g. in connecting the validation methods with the European Guidelines or instruments like the European Qualification Framework for Validation or in forms of volunteering that are not recognised. The Improving Validation in the Voluntary Sector (ImproVal) project was set out to tackle this problem. The group of five European organisations put together their past and present expertise on skills recognition and validation in the voluntary sector. By bringing together existing information and collecting new data, ImproVal project created an online compendium, a synthesis, a study and policy recommendations for advancing the understanding on validating volunteers' skills.We engaged over 80 representatives from voluntary organisations, volunteers and validation experts in our study on experiences in using tools designed for validating volunteers' skills. Through the webinars and workshops we reached about 100 stakeholders live at local, national and European level, and webinar recordings and videos reached 270 views. Over the 26 months of ImproVal project, we- created a ""volunteering validation compendium"", an online collection of 45 validation tools in 22 languages from EU member states- created a synthesis of the validation tools (46 tools) by analysing their pedagogical principles and other essential dimensions- conducted a study among volunteers and organisations who have participated in validation processes about the impact of validation, combining quantitative data by questionnaires and qualitative data through group interviews- produced an article based on the study and translated the summary to five languages (DE, FI, FR, NL, SK)- produced recommendations for policy makers and organisations interested in validation on basis of the synthesis and study- composed an annex to the policy recommendations, which connects numbers of executed validation projects in different EU member states to national policies of validation and volunteering- engaged stakeholders in a dialogue on validation by using webinars and facilitated workshops, thus raising their awareness and interest in advancing validation. As a result:- Participating organisations have learned to adapt their validation policies and gained new methods as well as reached an overview about existing instruments to validate skills and competencies acquired in field of volunteering- There is an increased understanding of the value of competencies gained by volunteering and volunteering in general among participating organisations and various stakeholders, such as voluntary organisations, educational institutions and policy makers- Various organisations have been informed about the project outcomes, and in the future they will be able to use and adapt existing tools in their validation activities and avoid putting time and effort into creating something that already exists and to focus on more innovative projects- Policy developments can be detected at micro level at some educational institutions in them opening up more to validating informally learning outcomes, and beyond individual institutions in policy recommendations at local, regional and even national and European levels. In the long term, the project benefits a wide number of individual volunteers who will have better access to validation opportunities, thus increasing motivation for learning and employability, and also voluntary organisations through access to methods and tools, educational institutions through an understanding on learning by volunteering and validation which give them the ability to guide their learners more smoothly though formal education, and employers and policy makers by increasing their awareness of the educational value of volunteering and their ability to design policies that advance the use of validation."

see above

Volunteering is widely acknowledged as an outstanding source of learning, and an important contributor to personal and professional development. Volunteering is an element of social innovation that can mobilise people’s creativity to develop solutions and make better use of scarce resources. At the societal level, it can be a tool for the empowerment of people, especially for disadvantaged groups in society. At the individual level, volunteering can be a means for citizens to acquire important soft and transversal skills, to play a useful role, and to connect or reconnect with society. Volunteering is understood to be a driving force behind social cohesion and personal development and the EMPL formation of the European Council Conclusions encouraged the ‘promotion of the role of volunteering as a form of non-formal and informal learning contributing to obtaining new skills and competences and improved employability in each and every age and social group.’(Source: Background paper of the European Commission, in cooperation with the European Volunteer Centre and the Life Long Learning Platform, for the Peer Learning Activity on Validation of soft and transversal skills acquired through Non-Formal and Informal learning by adults when volunteering, Brussels, January 2019; EDOS Foundation participated in this event). If the correlation between education and employment and especially to quality employment as well as to poverty is well known, one’s qualification does not always correspond to one’s knowledge and skills. Mechanisms to validate non-formal and informal learning contribute to tackle unemployment and achieve a better match between jobs and skills by acknowledging those acquired outside the formal education system.Validation of non-formal and informal learning also gives opportunities for second chances, improves access to education, and enhances motivation to learn. It contributes to social inclusion, personal development, empowerment and employability.The 2012 Council Recommendation on the validation of non-formal and informal learning (VNIL) is a first step towards more satisfactory validation policy frameworks in the EU. It gave a political impulse for Member States to speed up the building of well-functioning validation systems in partnership with stakeholders.(Source: Life Long Learning Platform, project partner of EDOS Foundation in one of our current projects)Since the start of the Erasmus+ program (2014) we have seen many projects dealing with validation in the voluntary sector. However, it seems that, so far, this doesn’t lead to the structural use of validation tools and -methods. Apparently, something more is necessary to make validation an integrated part of volunteering.Based on previous projects, we have made an overview of current and finished Erasmus+ projects dealing with validation in the voluntary sector. After that, we made an overview of validation tools/methods for the voluntary sector that are available in the EU-member states, either developed in the framework of Erasmus+, or with other resources.In this project we plan to:-do research about the support on 3 levels, needed to implement validation in the voluntary sector-explore successful implementation that has taken place in France, The Netherlands, and Romania-develop a step-by-step roadmap for implementing validation in a volunteering organisation-create connections with EQF / national qualification frameworks, to strengthen the role of volunteer work in enhancing people's employabilityWe expect that the Intellectual Outputs- will make it easier for volunteering organisations to include ''validation of skills and competences'' in their volunteer policy- will make it easier for volunteers to become aware of the value of validation as part of their volunteer work, to benefit from this for their position on the labour market and/or in society, and for their personal development- will make it easier for volunteer centers, or other support structures, to encourage volunteering organisations to offer validation arrangements to their volunteers.4 Intellectual Outputs are planned:IO-1, IO-2, and IO-3, are ''basic intellectual outputs'', for organisations that do not have a validation arrangement for their volunteers, or wnt to improve that arrangement.IO-4 is an ''advanced intellectual output'', for organisations that are already offering a validation arrangement to their volunteers, but want to improve the transferability from volunteers skills and competences to the labour market, with a special focus on the benefits for disadvantaged groups in society.

Младите хора в България и страните, в които няма дългогодишни доброволчески традиции, не осъзнават, натрупаните през доброволчество умения и компетенции. В същото време, самите доброволци не умеят да промотират, да защитят пред бъдещите си работодатели, всичко, което са научили по време на дейностите като активни граждани или част от други форми на неформално учене – често скриват тази си житейска опитност или просто нямат умения за презентиране. Успоредно с това няма единна система, инструмент, който да бъде припознат от повече организации за валидиране на уменията и знанията, усвоени от доброволците.Самите работодатели не познават същността на доброволчеството и ползите от него за развитието на младите хора.Проектът си поставя за цел успешна реализация на младите хора на пазара на труда и справяне с младежката безработица, чрез промотиране на уменията и компетенциите, добити по неформален пътПодцели:1. Осъзнаване от страна на младите хора на ползите за личностното им развитие от полагането на доброволен труд и подобряване уменията им да презентират пред работодатели и други заинтересовани страни своите силни страни и знания, усвоени по време на неформално учене. 2. Повишаване осъзнатоста на работодателите за доброволчеството като инструмент за развитие на меки умения и ключови компетенции и ползите от неформалното учене3. Въвеждане на системи за валидиране на компетенции, натрупани през доброволчество – електронна платформа, препоръки, книжки.4. Развиване на предприемачески нагласи и умения в младите хораНастоящият проект е продължение на проект „Доброволчеството – фактор за реализация”, финансиран от програма Еразъм + през 2014 – 2016 г., реализиран от Фондация НАРД и партньори, който проведе мащабно изследване върху професионалното развитие на млади хора, занимаващи се с доброволчество и използването на натрупаните умения и компетенции по неформален път и кариреното им развитие.